News

Political Loans Accountability Act

October 03, 2012

Yesterday, C-21, the Political Loans Accountability Act passed at Second Reading in the House of Commons. This bill will fix the current rules for political loans, which have been made a mockery of by the NDP and the Liberals.

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair and NDP MP’s Nathan Cullen, Niki Ashton, Paul Dewar, Robert Chisholm and Martin Singh failed to respect Elections Canada’s filing deadline for their financial disclosures of their leadership run with no consequences.

Ken Dryden, Joe Volpe, Hedy Fry and Martha Hall Findley are all in violation of the law for disguising large donations as loans.

These senior Liberal members even defied a court order to repay their leadership campaign debts by December 31, 2011, despite six years of leniency and reprieves from Elections Canada and the courts.

Thanks to our Conservative Government, Bill C-21, the Political Accountability Act will fix the NDP and the Liberals disregard for the law.

C-21 will achieve the following:

Rules for the treatment of unpaid loans will be tightened to ensure candidates cannot walk away from unpaid loans: riding associations or the party will be held responsible for unpaid loans taken out by their candidates. This measure would ensure that parties and riding associations are held responsible for debts incurred by the candidates they endorse.

C-21 will establish a uniform and transparent reporting regime for all loans to political entities, including mandatory disclosure of terms, and the identity of all lenders and loan guarantors. Only financial institutions and political entities will be able to make loans beyond the annual contribution limit for individuals, and only at a fair rate of interest.

Unions and corporations will now be unable to make loans, consistent with their inability to make contributions as set out in the Federal Accountability Act.